Ancient fossilised spider brought back to giant 3D life

It seems that even being preserved in amber can't stop the
tide of ageing, which is why scientists have given the world's
oldest spider a
terrifying facelift.

Researchers from the University of Manchester's Faculty of Life
Sciences have used X-ray imaging to take a
closer look at ancient specimens, which have existed blurrily in
amber since their deaths hundreds of thousands of years ago.
Although the amber in which these insects were
initially caught is clear at first, over time historic amber reacts
with oxygen, resulting in it becoming dark and cracked and often
obscuring the fossils inside.

However, tomography, the
process of creating an image by dividing it into sections through a
penetrating wave, computed by X-ray, has allowed researchers to see
past the gloop and study spiders and other insects up close and
personal for the first time. Excitingly, this method of imagery has demonstrated that even specimens that
appear damaged in darkened amber can still yield essential data and
information when studied using tomography.

Indeed, the
spider pictured in the above video and our gallery below is a huntsman
spider from the collection of Georg Karl Berendt in the Berlin
Natural History museum -- however, its true identity was only
confirmed after X-ray exposure.

People have been
sceptical of Berendt's "so-called huntsman spider" because the
species are strong, quick creatures unlikely to get into such
sticky situations as being trapped permanently in tree resin.
However, as Dr David Penny, part of the research team, said in a
press release: "The results were surprising. Computed tomography
produced 3D images and
movies of astounding quality, which allowed us to compare the
finest details of the amber fossil with similar-looking living
spiders. We were able to show that the fossil is unquestionably a
huntsman spider and belongs to a genus calledEusparassus,
which lives in the tropics and also arid regions of southern Europe
today, but evidently lived in central Europe 50 million years
ago."

Close-up imagery
like this allows the historic huntsman spider and others like it to
be compared with their modern-day living descendents. Or for use in
a particularly realistic horror film.